


Angry Musings at the Midnight Hour.

by TayBartlett9000



Category: Red Dwarf
Genre: Anger, Angst, Christine Cochanski 9mentioned0, Earth, Friendship, Hurt, M/M, space
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-16
Updated: 2019-02-16
Packaged: 2019-10-29 16:42:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17811668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TayBartlett9000/pseuds/TayBartlett9000
Summary: Rimmer reflects upon Lister's plan to return back to Earth, possibly without him.





	Angry Musings at the Midnight Hour.

Rimmer was used to bouts of insomnia. Indeed, his entire  somewhat miserable  life  had been  plagued with it, and  in the depths of space where the pressures of life could get  on top of one, sleep was  getting harder and harder to come bye.

Tonight,  as the hour of midnight  drew ever closer, the time  impossible to escape due  to Lister’s loudly ticking watch, Rimmer sighed heavily, rolling over onto his back  as he gave up  any attempts  at sleep.

It was Dave Lister who was  the main  source of Arnold Rimmer’s  frustration, as he was on many occasions. Lister often made Rimmer angry with his slobbyness, his disregard for Rimmer’s superiority and his constant humming when Rimmer was trying to study.  But yesterday evening’s ridiculous if enlightening  conversation had shown him precisely  the kind of man Dave Lister really was. An utter smeghead.

 Arnold  Rimmer had always known Dave Lister to be an utter gimboid. One couldn’t very well think anything else of the man after every selfish thing he had done   during his time on Red Dwarf.

Rimmer knew more than most how selfish Lister was. After all,  his death had  been caused in no small part to the slob from Liverpool. If Lister hadn’t kept that  scruffy  feline waste of space, then he would have had some much needed help when he was mending the drive plate and Rimmer wouldn’t be dead. If Lister had just  got rid of that cat, Rimmer wouldn’t at this moment be forced to exist trapped inside his own mind, unable to feel or touch anything. So yes, Arnold Rimmer’s undeserved and untimely death had been all David Lister’s fault. About that, he was angry.

And now things were about to get even worse for him. Lister was apparently  growing concerned about his home world   and had  told Holly to turn the Red Dwarf around and   head directly for the planet Earth. He was  somehow  of the  unshaken opinion that the planet was still there and inhabited by others of his kind.  Rimmer had no idea what was driving  Lister’s sudden yearning for his home planet but he supposed that it had something to do with the fact that he was apparently the last human alive. Perhaps he just wanted to prove everyone else wrong. Lister seemed to be CLINGING TO HOPE, THOUGH Rimmer wasn’t at all sure that the Earth was still habitable, if it was even still in existence. Three million  years had passed and there was no  getting away from the fact that a lot could happen  in three million years. They would probably get back to Lister’s homeworld to find out that the Earth had been transformed into an empty and barron wasteland

 Rimmer felt not  an ounce of sympathy. He wasn’t too bothered about the fact that Lister would be crushed to find  his beloved planet deserted and uninhabitable.  He didn’t care too much about the fact that Lister would undoubtedly feel lost knowing that he was indeed the last human alive as many had told him. Rimmer couldn’t have cared less. And why should he? Lister was barely sparing him  a single thought while he had been putting his plans together.

“It’ll be easy,” Lister had told him for the tenth time yesterday evening, as if Rimmer had cared to listen, “I’ll go into stasis until we reach Earth.”   For Lister, this was undoubtedly a good plan.  Rimmer wished that he hadn’t asked Lister  how he would reach the  planet Earth alive, for he hadn’t at all liked the answer. He had hoped that he would have seen the  glaring hole in his plan and abandon the whole sodding thing. But Lister had simply removed the obstacle that time  created, making  it even harder for Rimmer to come up with another reason for Lister to remain on board the Red Dwarf. Admittedly, Rimmer had run out of  arguments a few minutes into his and Dave Lister’s conversation and about this, he was even more frustrated.

Rimmer sighed and rolled over on his bunk, looking up at the mattress above his head  as if he could see the  smug expression on Lister’s face.  Oh how much he would love to slap that face. But he could not. Of course he could not. He was unable to   get the revenge he deserved and that was Lister’s fault to.

The conversation between Lister and  himself the previous evening was still spinning around in Rimmer’s mind as if the very memories had been  planted inside his  brain with the soul  purpose of torturing him. If lister  did choose to go into  stasis while Holly flew the gargantuan ship back to Earth, then he would have no further need for Arnold Rimmer’s presence and so he would be switched off, as if he was  nothing more than  an out of use soup  dispenser that no one on   board even looked at any longer.

 When Rimmer had told Lister that he would no longer be needed when Lister went into stasis,  Lister had merely shrugged off his concerns. “I’ll ask Holly to leave you switched on,” he had said simply as if this was a better plan.

Rimmer had merely snorted his contempt. “I can’t be left alone for three million years, I’ll go peculiar,” he had said in an almost panicked voice, desperately wishing for Lister to see  sense and for God’s sake think about someone else but himself for a change.

But alas, Lister refused to listen and now  was lying sound asleep in the top bunk, probably dreaming of life on Earth, of that snooty cow Christine Cochanski and the sunny beeches and bars of home. And he was doing this while Rimmer was fretting over his own situation.

 Arnold Rimmer hadn’t expected anything different, but deep down he had hoped that somewhere inside his heart, Dave Lister might have found a scrap of care and consideration for him. He had hoped that his and Lister’s friendship had  progressed enough  for Lister to   want his company. Rimmer wished that Dave lister had found something in his  friendship  with Rimmer that was worth holding onto. But it seemed that Lister did indeed want to be off the ship and away from him. Though Rimmer wouldn’t admit it to Lister, he was feeling bereft at that simple notion. He had spent too much time alone with Lister not to have formed some kind of connection, though Rimmer didn’t know precisely what type of connection now existed between them. Lister always  told Rimmer that he hated him and Rimmer had always tried his best to reassure him that the  hatred was mutual. However, Rimmer wasn’t sure  whether he really did hate Lister. If he dispised the smeghead as much as he claimed, then why was he so annoyed and upset at the idea of being  abandoned by that smeghead? Rimmer didn’t know. He did know however that he could not under any circumstances tell Lister what was going through his mind. He couldn’t tell Lister that he would miss him if Lister went into stasis and left him switched on. He also could not tell Lister that he  could not bear the thought of  Lister living without him while Rimmer slept for eternity. What would Lister say if he did tell him these things? He would probably laugh. He would probably simply tell Rimmer to smeg off. There was no doubt that Lister wouldn’t understand.

Rimmer sighed again and rolled over onto his side, eyes wide open and staring at nothing. He had no idea how to dissuade Lister from going back to Earth, but he knew that he had to do so. Arnold Rimmer didn’t want to spend the rest of eternity on board the Red Dwarf  on his own, without Lister. He needed the  gimboid, as much as he  hated admitting it to himself. Holly had often said that he had created  Rimmer’s hologram in  order to keep Lister sane, but he didn’t seem to have considered the idea that Lister’s presence was keeping Rimmer sane as well. One without the  other would not work. Rimmer knew that. He had to make  sure that Lister never made it to Earth. Whatever Rimmer had to do to ensure the  failure of the human’s plan, he would have to do it. He was sure that Lister would thank him for his actions  later  on,  even if he  loathed Rimmer for his interference  at first. Lister and Rimmer belonged on the ship and they belonged together. There was no getting away from it. Rimmer knew this to be true and he knew that Lister too would one day  come to the same conclusion. But until he did, Rimmer would continue to fight to keep Lister away from the doomed rock that was the planet Earth. He would make that his ultimate goal and this time, unlike his many exam attempts, Arnold Rimmer would succeed. After all,  He couldn’t very well die trying  could he?


End file.
